Device for operating freight-elevator hatch-doors



APP LICATION FILED FEB. 20. I920.

Patented May 17, 1921.

5 SHEETS$HEET I.

INVENTUH JEJWF aL CL. F

A TTOR/VEYS J. E. w. FOGAL AND c. L. FULGHUM. DEVlCE FOR OPERATINGFREIGHT ELEVATOR HATCH DOORS.

APPLlCATlON HLED FEB. 201 1920-" 1,378,017. Patented May 17, 1921.

5 $HEET$-SHEET 2- 1 l. E. W. FOGAL AND C. L. FULGHUM. DEVICE FOROPERATING FREIGHT ELEVATOR HATCH DOORS.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 3- 1 1111 A Ill A ATTORNEYS 1. E. w. FOGAL AND C. L.FISLGHUM.

DEVICE FOR OPERATING FREIGHT ELEVATOR HATCH DOORS.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. 20. 1920.

1,378,017. Patented May 17, 1921.

5 $I'lEETS---SHEET- 4.

11w NTORS JEW ogaL A TTORNEYS J. E. W. FOGAL AND C. L. FULGHUM. DEVICEFOR OPERATING FREIGHT ELEVATOR HATCH moons.

APFLHIATION FILED FEB, 20. 1920.

5 SHEETS-SHEET 5.

INVENTOI? J17 1 1! 0 al aLmzg iwm rQQ ATTORNEYS Patented May 17, 1921.

6 m y H 1 J J T 9\- 6 b .3 4 /9 9 7 o 3 8 6 9 1 MWW. I

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. W. FOGAL AND CLAUD Ii. F'ULGHUM, OF QUINCY, ILLINOIS.

DEVICE FOR OPERATING FREIGHT-ELEVATOR HATCH-DOORS.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 17, 1921.

Application filed February 20, 1920. Serial'No. 360,206.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, J OHNE. W. FOGAL and CLAUI) L. FULGi-iUM, bothcitizens of the United States, and residents of Quincy, in the county ofAdams and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Devices for Operating F reight-Elevator Hatch-Doors, of which thefollowing is a full, clear, and exact description.

()ur invention relates to improvements in devices for operating freightelevator hatch doors, and it consists in the combinations, constructionsand arrangements herein described and claimed.

An object of our invention is to provide a device by means of whichelevator hatch doors may be operated from the car of the elevator so asto start with a relatively slow motion, attaining a maximum rate of movement, and then to be slowed up or decelerated toward the end of themovement.

A further object of our invention is to provide a device by means ofwhich a pair of hatch doors, which are normally locked together, may beunlocked, one door moving upwardly and the other downwardlysimultaneously, both doors starting with a slow movement, graduallybeing accelerated, and slowing up toward the end of the movement.

A further object of our invention is to provide a device of the typedescribed in which the doors may be operated in pairs, as stated above,the initial movement and the final movement being relatively slow bothin the closing or the opening of the doors.

A further object of our invention is to provide a novel form ofoperating means for manipulating the doors, consisting of a drum mountedeccentrically with cables connected to the drum and forming, with a liftbar, a complete loop or circuit, means being provided for securing thedoors to the lift bars, whereby the doors are operated simultaneously.

A ffirther object of our invention is to pr vide a device of the typedescribed in which the unlocking of the doors is positively accomplishedby the same means which secures the doors to the lift bars.

A further object of our invention is to provide means for simultaneouslyunlocking the doors, connecting them with the lift bar, and closing theactuating circuit of the motor which operates the doors.

Other objects and advantages will appear in the following specification,and the novel features of the invention will be particu larly pointedout in the appended claims.

Our 1nvention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, forming partof this application, in WhlCh- Figurel is a view of a hatch showing thedoors in their normally closed position, and means for operating them,

Fig. 2 is a front view of a portion of an elevator car showing a footpush rod and dev ces operated thereby,

Flg. 1s a side view of a portion of a car, showing its relation to theelevator doors,

Fig. 4 1s a sectional view through a portion of an upper and a lowerdoor, showing the means for locking the two together,

F 1g. 51s a view similar tosFig. 4 showing the looklng means in p sitionfonunlocking the do rs and for connecting the upper door to the liftbar,

Flg. 6 is a face view of the mechanism shown in Fig. 5,

Fig. 7 is a sectional 7-7 of Fig. 4,

Fig. 8 is a detail view of a modified form of the lockingmechanismshowing the same held in inoperative position,

view along the line Fig. 9 is a detail view of the locking mechanism onthe opposite side of the door from that shown in Fig. 4,

Fi 10 is a View of a modified form of the oor operating device, and

Fig. 11 is an enlarged section along the line 11-11 of Fig. 10.

Referring now to Fig. 1, the elevator hatch is indicated at 1 and thedifferent floors at 2 and 2. At each floor are doors such as those shownat 3 and 4. It will be noted that thesedoors 3 and 4 are arranged inpairs, the doors 3 being designed to be at 15 with a lift bar 16 whichextends below the upper end of the lowermost door 4. A cable 17 isconnected to the lift bar 16 at its lower end, passes .around a pulley18, being connected by means-of a turn-buckle 19 with a cable 20 whichpasses around a pulley 21 and is connected at 22 to the lower end ,of alift bar 23. The upper end of the lift bar is connected at 24 with acable 25 which. passes over a pulley 26, thence downwardly around apulley 27, and upwardly, being attached to a compression spring 28. Acable 29 is secured to the compresslon spring 28 and 1s wound around aportion of the drum 6. It Wlll thus be seen that there is a loop aroundthe hatch consisting of the cables and lift bars, as described.

Each of the lower doors 4 is provided with a cross bar 30, at the endsof which are attached cables 31 which pass over fixed pulleys 32 and aresecured to arms 33 projecting laterally from the upper doors near thebottoms thereof. This arrangement is for the purpose of providing forthe simultaneous movements of the doors, since it is obvious that as theupper door rises, the lower door will drop at the same rate.

Consider now the action of the eccentrically mounted drum. If, in theposition shownin Fig. 1, the drum is rotated in a clockwise direction,as shown by the arrow, it will draw on the cable 29 and let out on thecable 10. This will pull on the cable 25 which is attached to the liftbar 23, thus tending to lift the bar. The lift bar 16 is connected atits lower end to the lift bar 23 and will be drawn downwardly, the cable12 being paid out to compensate for the downward movement of the liftbar 16. When the drum is rotated in the opposite direction, the lift bar23 will move downwardly, and the lift bar 16 will move upwardly.

The means for normally holding the doors 3 and 4 together and forunlocking them is I best shown in Figs. 4, 5 and 6. In Fig. 4 it will beobserved that the arm 33, which is secured to the top door 3 (see Fig.1), has secured to it a housing 35 by means of bolts 36 (see Fig. 6).The housing 35 is slotted as shown at 37 in Fig. 7 to permit the liftbar 23 to slide freely therein. The housing is also provided with a slot38 to permit a bar 39 to slide therein, this bar being provided with apin or lug 40 (see Figs. 4 and 5) which is normally pressed on by aspring 41, which bears at one end on a screw plug 42, which may beremoved to insert the spring. The housing is pro- .vided with a screw 43which acts as a stop member to limit the movement of the bar 39. Thelatter is bent laterally at its lower end, as shown at 44, and isarranged to rest normally on an angle iron bearing plate head 50 havingan extension 51 provided.

with a slot 52. The pawl is normally pressed on by a leaf spring 53, asshown in Fig. 4, so as to throw the lower end, with its shoulder 49,underneath a bracket 54, secured t0 the bar 30, which is fastened to thelower door, thus locking the lower door and the upper door together.When the head of the pawl 50 is ressed inwardly, 2'. 6., toward theregistering openings 39 and 23, the lower end 49' swings outwardly,

disengaging the doors, as shown in Fig. 5.

The means for causing the disengagement of the pawl 46 is best shown inFigs. 2 and 3. Inthese figures, the elevator car 55 is shown as beingprovided with a foot push rod 56 which is mounted on a lever 57 (seeFig. A rock shaft 58 is connected with the lever and is journaled inbearings 59 at the ends of the car. Arms 60 extend from the ends of therock shaft,-and to these arms are pivoted rods 61 which are connectedwith links 62 and 63 at their upper ends. A link 62 is connected with astationary angle bar 64, the link 63 being connected to a shoe 65.Pivoted links 66 and 67 connect the shoe with the angle bar 64 so as tomaintain the parallelism of the two members 64 and 65 at all times. At68 we have shown diagrammatically a switch which is operated by a chain69 connected to the shoe 65.

From the foregoing description of the various parts of the device, theoperation thereof may be readily understood. The elevator car 55 may beraised or lowered in any suitable manner, as, for instance, by anelectric motor (not shown). When the car arrives opposite a landing, theoperator steps on the foot push 56, thereby rotating the rock shaft andforcing the rods 61 upwardly (see Figs. 2 and 3). This will cause theshoes 65 on opposite sides of the car to be forced forwardly, z. 6.,toward the hatch doors. One of these shoes will come in contact with thehead 50, thereby swinging it from the locking position shown in Fig. 4to that shown in Fig. 5, thus unlocking the lower door 4 from the upperdoor 3. The extension 51 on the head 50 will enter the registeringopenings 39 and 23', so that when the doors are opened, the slidable bar39 will uter movement of the shoe 65, due to the 1 pressing of-the footpush, will cause the operation of the switch 68 to close the circuit ofthe motor 8.

At this point it iswell to observe that on the opposite side of theelevator is a pawl 46 (see Fi 1) whose upper end 49' corre- ,s onds to te lowerend 49 of the pawl 46.

he pawl 46' (see Fig. 1) is pivotally mounted onthe rod 30'and is hookedover the arm 33, while, as before stated, the pawl 46 is pivotallymounted on the arm 33 and is hooked under the portion 54, carried by therod 30. One of the shoes 65 will unlock the pawl 46 simultaneously withthe unlockm of the pawl 46 by the other shoe 65. T e opposite end of thepawl 46 will be thrown into position to engage the lift rod 16 inprecisely the same manner that the pawl 46 was thrown into position toengage the lift bar 23 in Fig. 2.

Now when the motor'8 is started, the drum 6 be 'ns to revolve in thedirection shown by t e arrow in Fig. 1, slowly wind- I ing up the cable29 and letting out on the cable 10. The upper door 3 of either of thepairs of doors 3 and 4 (as shown in the drawing), oppositewhich theelevator has stopped, will be drawn upwardly, since the pawl 46, whichis secured to'the upper door, will be engaged by the movable lift rod 23to pull it upwardly, but since the upper and lower doors are attachedtogether by the cables 31, the lower door will descend as theupperdoor-rises. The lift rod 23 will be raised, while the lift rod 16 willbe lowered. Since, however, the lift rod 16, is now connected to thelower door by the pawl 46, it will, by its action, aid in lifting theupper door by the cable connection 31., so that the movement of thesedoors will be absolutely uniform. At the first movement of the doorsapart the spring 41 will force the bar 39 downwardly into the slot 52,so as to lock the pawl in position. As the drum continues tov revolve,it will, owing to its eccentricity, cause the acceleration of the doors.

After the drum has rotated 180 or half a turn, this movement will bedecelerated, so that the doors start slowly, speed up during the firsthalf of the movement, and gradually slow up to the end of the movement.

This enables the doors to be operated much the revolving of the circularpoints to rotate and break. the switch connection mechanically byopening the'switchconnection and stopping the motor. The motor beingreand the lift bar 16 is raised. This will cause the loweringof theupper door 3 and the raising of the lowerydoor 4. The operator, ofcourse, has removed his foot from the foot push, and consequently at thetime the doors are closing, the shoe35, has returned to its full lineposition shown in Fig. 3, by gravity. Therefore, when the slidable door39 (see Figs. 4 and 5) engages the angle iron 45, the bar will be pushedupwardly against the tension of the spring 41, thus bringing the edge 70out of the slot 52, whereupon the spring 53 will force the head 50upwardly and the hook'49 inwardly, so that when the doors reach theposition shown in Fig. 4, the hook will engage underneath the member 54,thereby holding the doors toether. Similarly on the opposite side of,

switch may complete the circuit of the aux-- iliary starting coil of theelevator proper (not shown). When the cam 72 moves away from the switch73, the contacts of the latter are opened, so that the elevatorstartingv circuit is broken, thereby preventing the starting of theelevator until the doors have again been closed. I

Referring again to Figs. 4, 5 and 6, it will beseen that we haveprovided the pawl 46 with a pair of openings 74 and 75 arranged toreceive a staple .76. This staple is carried in this osition for thesake of convenience. Now 1f for any reason the door operating devicecannot be used,.the pawls can be held in inactive position, and thedoors operated manually until the equipment has been again put in orderby removing the staple from its normally inactive position, and placingit in, theopening 74 and also in the opening 77 in the ear 78 of thecasting 35, as shown in Fig. 8. The hook 49, as well as the extension51-, are now held by the staple in inoperative position, so that it isonly necessary to press the pawl at the opposite side of the doorinwardly to release the doors and open them manually. The doors, beingcounterbalanced, are easily opened or closed by hand. Whenthe doors areshut by hand, one pawl will operate to lock them in the mannerdescribed.

Each car is rovided with a set of push buttons (see F1 2) marked Up,,Stop, and Down. he electrical circuit forms no part of the presentinvention. The closing of the switch 68 has'the same effect as thepushing of the button marked Up to start the motor. 8.

-In Fig. 1, we have shown the cable portions 10 and 12, and 25 and 29 asbeing connected by torse springs'll and 28 respectively, and the cableportlons 20 and 17 as being con,- nected by the turnbuckle 19. These arefor the purpose of making proper adjustments and providing lost motionfor the cable that varleson account of the eccentric shape of the drum.

In Figs. 10 and 11 we have shown a modified form of door operatingdevice, in which single doors 85 and 86 are rovided. On one side ofthese doors is a lift bar 87, and on the opposite side, a lift bar 88.Each door is provided with an outwardly extending arm 89 on each sidethereof, to which is pivotally connected a awl 90 similar to the pawl 46and arranged to engage a lug or bracket 91 on the hatch wall. A cable 92is attached to the lift bar 87, While a similar cable 93 is attached tothe lift bar 88. A shaft 94 is journaled in bearings 95 and has a drum96 arranged to receive the cable 92, and also a drum 97 arranged toreceive the cable 93. The shaft 94 is extended at one end, andisprovided with a drum 98 connected-with a cable 99, with a drum 100 onthe shaft of the motor 101. In this formof. the device the. pawl 90 ateach side of any particular door is operated by the shoe 65 (see Fig. 3)

in the manner already described thus freeing the door from the lockin ug91 and connecting the pawl with the lifting bars 87. and 88, so thatwhen the motor 101 is operated, both lift bars will be raised and willcarry with them the particular door whose pawls have been thrown intooperative relation with the lift ba'rs.

On the reversal of the motor 101, the door will descend, and when theslidable bar 102 (see Fig. 11) engages the angle iron 103, the bar willbe lifted out of the slot 104, thereby permitting the spring to throwthe upper endof the pawl outwardly and the lower end in lockin positionwith the locking lug 91, thus 'lo nng the doors in their normalposition.

We claim:

1. A device for operating elevator hatch doors comprising a motor, acable operated by said motor, a lift bar, a locking device carried bythe door for normally locking the door in its closed position, and meansfor engaging the locking device to throw it out of locking position andinto operative engement with the lift bar, whereby the cor is liftedwith the latter.

2. A device for operating elevatorhatch doors comprisin by said motor, aift bar on each side of the door connected with certain of said cables,locking devices carried by the door in close Hroximity to said lift barsfor locking the.

cor in its normally closed position, and means for simultaneously movingsaid looking devices to unlock the door and to move the locking devicesinto operative engagement with the lift bars, whereby the door is movedwith thelift bars.

v 3. A device for operating elevator hatch the door from its normallyclosed positiom 4. A device for operating elevator hatch doorscomprising a motor, cables actuated by said motor, a lift bar on eachside of the door connected with certain of said cables, locking devicescarried by the door a motor, cables actuated in close roximity to saidlift bars for lock- I I ing the oor in its normally closed-position,means for simultaneously moving said locking devices to unlock the doorand to bring the locking devices into operative engagement with the liftbars, whereby the door is moved with the lift bars, means forautomatically securing the locking devices to the lift-bars, and aspring actuated latch member held in inoperative position when the dooris closed, and adapted to be brought into position tosecure the lockingdevices to their respective lift bars after the door has moved from itsnormally closed position.

5. The combination with an elevator hatch door of a motor,-cablesactuated by the motor, a lift bar on each side of the door actuated bysaid cables, each of said lift bars having an opening, pivoted pawlscarried by the door, means engaged by one of the pawls for holding thedoor in locked position, an elevator car,and means carried by saidelevator car for engaging the opposite ends of the awls to unlockthedoor and to force a portlon of the pawls throu h the openings in saidlift bars, whereby t e latter are secured to the pawls.

.6. The combination with an elevator hatchdoor of a motor, cablesactuated by the motor, a lift bar on each side of the door actuated bysaid cables, each of said lift bars having an opening, pivoted awlscarried by the door, means engaged y one of the pawls for holding thedoor in locked position, an elevator car, means carried by said elevatorcar for engaging the opposite ends of the pawls to unlock the door andto force a portion of the pawls through the openings in said lift bars,whereby the latter are secured to the pawls, and means for preventingthe disengagement of the pawls from the lift bars while the door is inopen position.

7. The combination with an elevator hatch of elevator hatch doorsarranged in pairs at each landing, means for normally locking the doorsof each pair together, an elevator car, amotor, cables actuated by themotor, a lift bar on each side of said doors, said lift bars beingactuated by said cables, and means carried by the elevator car forsimultaneously unlocking any pair of doors and for connecting-each doorwith one of said lift bars.

8. The combination with an elevator hatch of elevator hatch doorsarranged in pairs at each landing, means for normally locking the doorsof each pair together, an elevator car, a motor, cables actuated by themotor, a lift bar on each side of said doors, said lift'bars beingactuated by said cables, means carried by the elevator car forsimultaneously unlocking any pair of doors and for connecting each doorwith one of said lift bars, and cable connections between the doors ofeach pair for causing the doors to move in opposite directions at thesame rate when either of said doors is moved by the lift bar.

9. A device for operating elevator hatch doors comprising a motor, adoor, means cooperating with said motor for opening and closing saiddoor, a locking device carried by the door for normally locking the doorin its closed osition, and means for engaging the locking device tothrow it out of locking position and into operative engagement with saidfirst named means.

10. The combination with a air of vertically slidable doors, means oropening and closing said doors, means for normally locking the doorstogether, an elevator car, and means carried by the elevator car adaptedto engage said locking means and to throw it out of locking position andinto operative en agement with said first named means, said rst namedmeans being adapted to simultaneously move the doors in oppositedirections at the same rate of speed.

11. The combination with a pair of vertically slidable doors, meansforopening and closing saididoors, means for normally looking the doorstogether, an elevator car, and means carried by the elevator car andadapted to engage said locking means to throw it out of locking positionand into operative engagement with said first named means, whereby saiddoors are opened in opposite directions at a slow initial movement, ac-

bars, cable connections from said drum to' the top of the other liftingbar, and cable connections between said bars, whereby the doors aremoved simultaneously in opposite directions, and means for securing saiddoors to said lift bars at will to cause the doors to travel with thelift bars.

13. The combination with an elevator hatch of a plurality of pairs ofdoors, said doors being arranged to move vertically, a motor, aneccentric drum driven by the motor, a lifting bar disposed at each sideof the sets of doors, cable connections from said drum to the top of oneof said lifting bars, cable connections from said drum to the top of theother lifting bar, and cable connections between said bars, whereby thedoors are moved simultaneously in opposite directions, and means forsecuring any door of each pair of doors to one of the lift bars and theother door of the pair to the other lift bar to cause the doors totravel with said lift bars.

14. In an elevator door operating device, a pair of vertically disposedlift bars, a motor, an eccentric drum driven by said motor, cablescarried by said drum, idlers for supporting said cables, said cablesbeing attached to the tops of said lift bars, a cable for connecting thebottoms of the lift bars together, idlers for supporting said last namedcable, a plurality of vertically movabledoors disposed between the liftbars, and means for connecting said doors to said lift bars at will tomove with the lift bars.

15. In an elevator door operating device, a pair of vertically disposedlift bars, a motor, an eccentric drum driven by said motor, cablescarried by said drum, idlers for supportin said cables, said cablesbeing attached to t e tops of said lift bars, a cable for connecting thebottoms of the lift bars together, idlers for supporting said last namedcable, a plurality of doors disposed between said lift bars and movablevertically, said doors being arranged in pairs, the doors of each pairbeing movable simultaneously in opposite directions, and means forconnecting one door of each pair to one lift bar, and the other door tothe other lift bar.

JOHN E. W. FOGAL. OLAUD L. FULGHUM.

